The invention is based on a priority application EP 01 440 002.2 which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a Fibre Grating Optical Waveguide Device and a method of manufacturing the same.
Optical filters have numerous applications in optical communications and in particular, they can be used for providing wavelength selectivity and tuning in WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) and DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing) systems. For this purpose, transmission filters based on diffractive grating structures or diffractive fibre grating structures, offer near ideal filter response and high channel isolation. Furthermore they can be used in sensor applications. The term xe2x80x9cgrating structuresxe2x80x9d as used in the following and in the field of optics in general defines structures comprising for example FBG (fibre Bragg gratings), SBG (slanted Bragg gratings), LPG (long period gratings) and mode converters.
Often the material of the optical fibre and consequently the wavelengths passing through the fibre is affected by thermal changes. For example, an uncompensated grating displays a shift in the so-called xe2x80x9cBragg wavelengthxe2x80x9d over a 100xc2x0 C. temperature range as large as 1 nm which leads to serious problems in some optics systems applications. An increase or decrease in temperature has to be balanced in order to maintain a good tuning and/or selection of the wavelengths in the optical fibre.
The center wavelength (or Bragg-wavelength) xcexB of a filter is given by the following equation:
xcexB=2xcex9neff
Where xcex9 is the period of the grating and neff is the effective refractive index.
The change in the Bragg wavelength xcexB for a temperature variation xcex94T is given by:
xcex94xcexB/xcex94T=2xcex9(dneff/dT+neffxcex1)
whereby xcex1 is the linear thermal expansion coefficient of the fibre.
The variation in the center of the fibre is strongly influenced by the thermo-optic coefficient dneff/dT which is about 10-11xc2x710xe2x88x926/K for germania-silica or silica glasses. The expansion term contributes less than ten percent of the total variability.
To avoid this undesired temperature dependency, two methods for athermalizing diffractive gratings are known which provide thermal control of the FBG in a device environment:
The first athermalization method is conventionally termed as xe2x80x9cactivexe2x80x9d, providing a thermal control of the entire device environment. Active athermalization, however, needs an external power source to provide a constant and controlled temperature which is costly to elaborate and to power. Furthermore the compensating device, often termed as xe2x80x9cpackagexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cpackagingxe2x80x9d is not compact enough for many applications.
The second athermalization method is termed as xe2x80x9cpassivexe2x80x9d which is conventionally achieved by two ways:
The first way makes use of an arrangement, where the filter is maintained in a mechanical structure comprising two materials having different but positive thermal expansion coefficients (TEC). The design is such that the final dilatation behaviour results in a negative elongation of the fibre with an increasing temperature. The second way is to manufacture the diffractive grating directly into a structure comprising a single material (polymer or ceramic) with a negative TEC.
The FBG is packaged into a structure in such a way that the strain is relieved as the temperature increases. The reducing strain compensates the increasing refractive index and holds xcexB constant:
xcex94xcexB/xcex94T=0xe2x86x92xcex1FBG packaged=xe2x88x92(dneff/dT)/neff
Passive athermalization is well known in the art:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,898 discloses a package which compensates the wavelength shift with temperature. This is achieved by a combination of two materials having different thermal expansion coefficients. This effect is being used to partially relieve the tension applied to the optical fibre with a temperature increase, and vice versa with a temperature decrease.
To avoid optical fibre buckling when temperature increases, the optical fibre is always maintained under tension. The disadvantage of the know passive athermalization methods is that the optical fibre is fixed on the package at only two points by the help of clamps or glue. This packaged device is very sensitive towards ageing which results in an uncontrolled variation of fibre tension, therefore in an uncontrolled shift of xcexB. The difficulty to ensure a stable and desired center wavelength is a major disadvantage of this method.
Iwashima et al. in Electronics Letters 1997, Vol.33, p. 417-419 and furthermore in EP-A-0798 573 proposed a multilayer package around the fibre. The fibre is hold in a tube made of a liquid-crystall polymer and fixed into the tube by an epoxy glue or silicon. A major disadvantage of this method is the fact that obtaining perfectly concentrically surrounding layers requires a tedious and technically demanding process which leads often to non-reproducible results.
The underlying problem of the invention was therefore to provide a fiber grating filter optical waveguide device which is not influenced by variations in temperature.
This problem is solved by a fiber grating filter optical waveguide device with the features of claim 1.
Accordingly, a fibre grating filter optical waveguide device comprises an optical fibre consisting essentially of silica, whereby said optical fibre has an area with a diffractive grating region and wherein said area with a diffractive grating region is covered with a material having a negative thermal expansion coefficient xcex1 satisfying the following equation:
xcex1=xe2x88x92(dneff/dT)/neff
wherein dneff/dT is the thermo-optic coefficient of the fibre material and neff is the effective refractive index.
It is preferred that the material is a polymeric material. Polymeric materials display an easily controllable behaviour, so that they can be chosen and tailored according to the specific needs of an application, so that the adhesion between a glassy material as for example a fibre and the polymeric material is optimized. Furthermore, they can be easily applied on the surface of Bragg gratings.
It is still further preferred that the polymeric material is a crosslinked polymeric material and/or display anisotropic mechanical and thermomechanical properties. It is preferred to use crosslinkable monomeric or oligomeric precursors which are generally easier to apply than the corresponding polymers.
Advantageously, the monomeric and/or oligomeric precursor materials of said polymeric material display LC characteristics in the molten state.
The problem underlying the invention is further solved by a method for manufacturing a fiber grating optical waveguide device according to the invention comprising the following steps:
forming a diffraction grating area along an optical axis of an optical fibre
bringing in contact of at least said area of the optical fibre monomeric and/or oligomeric precursor materials forming a layer or a coating of said monomeric and/or oligomeric precursor materials on at least said area
curing the layer of the monomeric and/or oligomeric precursor materials
The curing according to the invention is carried out after applying the monomeric and/or oligomeric precursor materials onto the optical fibre with the diffractive grating region. This implies an excellent adhesion between the polymeric material and the material of the fibre surface is obtained.
The curing is carried out preferably by temperature, UV, electron beam or gamma irradiation, but any other method known by a person skilled in the art is applicable as well. By deliberately choosing the curing temperature, the crosslinking degree can be adapted to the specific requirements of the polymeric coating.
In a further advantageous embodiment, the monomeric and/or oligomeric precursor materials are aligned in a magnetic field along the fibre axis before or during curing. This leads to an uniaxial orientation of the corresponding monomers and/or oligomers, so that a controllable negative TEC of polymeric material in the fibre axis direction is obtained with the suitable value (xe2x88x927 to xe2x88x929.10xe2x88x926/K). The negative TEC of the polymer coating, which is especially advantageous compensates the positive thermal sensitivity of the filter.